A week from today, (well...Saturday is technically in 10 minutes, so I will just go ahead and say today.) I am leaving on my exchange.
Tomorrow I am going to the Newberg Old Fashioned Days Festival and making pancakes at a Rotary Breakfast with the two Rebounds who went on their exchanges last year from my sponsoring Rotary Club. I am super excited to be able to talk to them about their year abroad and their experiences; so I am super excited to be able to go and hopefully talk to some of the Rotarians and of course the Rebound Exchange Students. Maybe if I'm lucky ill be able to see some of the kids from school again before I leave at the festival!
A Rotarian made us all different colored shirts with our names on them (I asked to get my Finnish name on mine so I could take it with me to Finland.). The shirts also have our Host Countries printed on them, and the year we studied abroad. Unfortunately, I have been a leader at a church youth girls camp this past week, so I haven't gotten the chance to see my shirt...but I am super excited to get it. :)
On another note...I finally have my ticket booked for my flight! I leave Portland, Oregon on August 3rd, and I will arrive in Helsinki, Finland on the 4th. I'm glad that my flight itinerary is the same as the other Outbound Student in my district going to Finland. It will be fun to be able to start our adventures off together. And who knows, maybe we will find some other students going to Finland at the airports we stop off at! ;)
Tomorrow I also have my going away party. Which is sad and exciting because I will see friends I haven't seen all Summer; but at the same time its sad because there will be friends there that will be graduated and gone by the time I get home. I am excited to see those friends who will be graduated, but at the same time I am sad that we are headed separate ways so soon. As for my other friends, I am excited to say, "See you later!" and be able to come home and see how different we both are the next time we see each other. :)
I actually found myself a little book while I was cleaning out my bedroom that I have begun to put friend's email addresses and home addresses so that I can write emails and letters to my friends while I am gone. I thought it might be a good idea to make myself a little contact book before I left so that I could keep track of everything; and hopefully I will be able to get a few contacts tomorrow at my going away party.
On a good note- even though I am sad that I am leaving soon, I am glad that I will be able to see my good friends one last time before my adventures begin; and I am glad that I have spent this last week with my youth group young women at Girls Camp as a Youth Camp Leader. It was really fun to be able to spend this time with my friends, and in a way, I feel like it is a good ending to the beginning of my adventures; because sometimes you have to say, "Goodbye" to someone to say, "Hello" to someone else. :)
Hopefully these next 7 days don't fly by, so that I can really enjoy these last 7 days before my crazy adventures begin! :)
(Don't get me wrong, I am totally excited to go! I just feel as though I am not quite ready to jump into it all yet. So, hopefully in this next week I can get the final touches of packing done, and say goodbye to my friends, and spend the last few days with my family...then I will for sure be ready to hop on that airplane to begin my new Finnish life!)
I'm from Philomath... another small Oregon town. It's really fun reading your blog. Keep it up, and your journalling. You will have amazing memories to look through over the years. A few years ago, my fellow 92-93 exchange student friends had a reunion in Canada... we were still all such good friends, nearly 15 years later. Finland in particular breeds good exchange student friends because you have to bond together since people are shy (as you have discovered). It's okay to make good friends with your fellow exchangees -- they tell you not to, but here's a secret: they might become the very best friends of your whole life. Mine did!
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